Just This Once
by LiteraryLullaby
Summary: She’s not sure why she’s in the rain, or why laughter is bubbling up inside her like boiling water. All she knows is that she’s finally free. Slight SxC


**So, it's been a while since I uploaded a story. But it took me a while to write a story I believed deserved to be read. I know, I'm a horrible critic of myself. I've been told many times. :P This is pretty short, but may be continued.**

**Disclaimer: I never have, though someday will, own Sonny With a Chance.**

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**Just This Once**

Sonny is tired of it. So horribly tired of it all. The pointless fights, the belligerent screaming, the undeserved tears. She wants to escape, to get away from everything and start over new. She wants to fall asleep and float up into sky, where the clouds can softly caress her and the sun keep her pleasantly warm. She hates waking up, realizing that everything is still the same, and that she's going to spend another day desperately trying to fix a relationship doomed for failure.

It wasn't always this way. In the first few months, it was all perfect. He had gracefully waltzed his way into her life, securing himself what was then a permanent place in her heart the moment he took her hand and kissed it. It only took him a week to ask her out, then a month for them to fall in love. After that, it was pure bliss. For a long time, their relationship seemed like the classic Hollywood love story. They were solid; they were perfection.

But then, suddenly, the perfection switch was turned off. He left to film a movie in New Zealand, and she stayed in Hollywood to continue filming her show. Their sudden long distance relationship was strained, and constant rumors of a romance with his costar found themselves onto the covers of all the major magazines. She tried to ignore it, to remind herself of how in love they were, but an emptiness in her heart told her otherwise.

When he came back, she, like a child, expected the emptiness to be filled and for the perfection switch to turn back on. But their explosive argument his first night home brought her entire mindset down. Over the coming weeks, the arguments not only increased in fury, they also occurred more often. Somehow, along the way, they ended up to where they are now. Neither want the relationship to end, yet they know the spark is gone.

As she thinks on this, her phone rings. The caller ID flashes: _Mark Watson_. America's newest heartthrob and Sonny Munroe's boyfriend of nine months. Six months of bliss, one month in New Zealand, and then two months of arguments and tears. It's almost as if they're three separate relationships, and in her head she regards them as such. She wants the first relationship back. With a sad feeling in her head, she answers the phone, preparing for an apology.

It comes much too soon.

He feverishly apologizes for his anger, for his hurtful words, and for everything. Sonny wants to forgive him. She wants to do what she does every night, to swear that he's forgiven and to promise to forget the argument. She wants to assure him that he is forgiven and that she still loves him. But she doesn't want to lie to him again.

She never forgets the arguments. She never forgets the insults he throws at her, or the unbearable stabbing feeling they give her. She never forgets the hot tears that always seem to burn her skin like fire. She never forgets the tearing feeling of her broken heart. She never truly forgives him for what he says, and always keeps her hurt hidden away from him. Most of all, she's not exactly sure she loves him anymore.

Just this once, she realizes, she doesn't want to forgive him for it all.

What she wants is to want to forgive him. She wants to love him like she did before. She wants to feel like she does all the other nights, like it's up to her to fix their relationship and glue them back together, but she doesn't. She wants to scream, to pull her hair, to tell him just how much he's hurt her. She wants, just once, to be the one with the knife, to be the one stabbing him, breaking his heart, making him cry. But she doesn't want to end there.

She wants to take their relationship, the precious possession she's nurtured and sown back together all these months, and throw it on the ground, stomp the life out of it, and rip it to shreds. She wants to destroy it beyond repair. She wants him to realize that this is the end, that he's messed up too much. She wants to make him feel the pain he's made her feel for much too long.

And for once, Sonny Munroe gives herself what she wants.

Without warning, she begins screaming at him about all the pain he's caused. She screams and screams and screams, even when her throat begins to burn. She lets loose all the horrible thoughts she's had ever since that huge argument the night he returned from New Zealand. She calls him the most malicious of words, the ones people would be surprised good girls like her even know. And when she's finished, when their relationship is lying there broken so terribly, she says the two words that will break it for good.

"I'm done."

The moment she says it, she realizes just how good it tastes on her lips. She says it over and over again, her happiness increasing each time. And as Mark begs for her to forgive him, she just says those two words to no end. She hears Mark's sadness over the phone, the same sadness she had to deal with all this time, and hangs up. She doesn't want to hear from him anymore.

Because finally, she's done.

For a moment she just sits there, unsure of what to do with herself. She looks around her house, as if she'll find an answer there. When her gaze reaches the window, she sees that this whole time there has been a steady downpour of rain. Without thinking, she runs out the door and opens her arms, welcoming the wetness like an old friend. Within seconds, she is drenched in water.

She's not sure why she's in the rain, or why laughter is bubbling up inside her like boiling water. All she knows is that she's finally free. She feels wonderful, and just this once the empty space in her heart doesn't hurt just as much. It feels as if, with each raindrop, Mark's hold on her is washing away. She can see it trickling down the road and making its way into the sewer drain. It's gone, he's gone.

Suddenly, she finds herself twirling. The patter of raindrops hitting the pavement sounds like a beat, and she can't help but to spin and to jump and to dance in time with its hypnotic rhythm. She closes her eyes, letting the music fill her. She is free, and she is unable to contain the joy this brings her.

And as she's smiling and laughing and dancing in the rain, she feels the urge to share this happiness with someone. She pulls out her phone, despite the rain, and looks through her phone book for someone who would be just as happy as she upon hearing this news. All of her cast mates loved Mark, they'd be devastated, and her mother was simply star struck every time she was around him.

As she scrolls through her contact list a second time, she comes across his name. Not Mark's, but another heartthrob she's always known. As she stares at the number to his cell phone, the number of the one he answers, she feels some of the emptiness in her heart disappear. Her smile grows even wider, knowing that the emptiness would probably leave even more if she could hear his voice. He always hated her relationship with Mark. He was constantly shooting off reasons why they shouldn't be dating. He'd be ecstatic at the news. In her head, she makes a decision.

Just this once, she's going to call Chad Dylan Cooper.

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**Did you like it? Please tell me. Oh, and I'm very seriously considering continuing this story with, from Chad's POV, Chad recieving the call from Sonny and moving on from there. If that sounds like a good idea, please let me know. :)**

**P.S. I made a blog. Check out my profile (personal fact number 28) for more information if you're interested in reading it. :D**


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